But traditional tools to edit video require going back to school.

Now that we're all taking great HD video with multiple devices, the problem is to make our clips actually watchable. Gager was pleased that new users find it more approachable but long-standing users aren't hampered by it. It went out into the world in a beta version of Elements 11 in January and has been refined since then. On a more concrete level, the release improves easy of use with a new interface that's much more pleasant to use than the older one, which was gradually disappearing on higher resolution monitors. This release focused on three goals: improve ease of use, instant sharing and easy video editing. In a briefing with Senior Product Manager Bob Gager, he explained development of Elements is pushed along by customer requests in concert with the team's evaluation of industry trends. We've been playing with a pre-release version of Elements 11. There's always something new to learn in this game and Elements has been around for over 10 years, so we suspect it has a faithful following that really likes this approach. Half of all Elements users are 50 or over, according to Adobe. It has all the power of the big guys but it has more help than less powerful approaches. If you want to know more than just what button to press, Elements is for you.

It leads you by the hand through some sophisticated edits but they're still sophisticated edits, not just an array of presets to pick from. But the editor lets you take your images beyond snapshots and your video beyond rough cuts to something you can be proud to share.Īnd - here's what we love - Elements doesn't take any shortcuts. And the sharing efficiencies actually make it feasible to show you were there. The conveniences of the Organizer are greatly appreciated when you return from some event with a card full of images. The Organizer got face recognition (in Elements 8), the Editor got the Healing Brush, more cool tricks were included as well as more ways to share. Over the years Elements has evolved, adding more and more new technology into its affordable and approachable package. But it doesn't teach you how to get from one to the other - or even when to use the first. When we recently reviewed ACDSee Pro 5, we took pains to show 1) how simple it was to automatically enhance an image and 2) how the program could also handle far more complex image edits, like split toning. But the reason we've always been fond of Elements is quite different: Learn. Adobe describes its Photoshop/Premiere Elements package with four words: Organize, Edit, Create and Share.

Adobe photoshop elements 11 free